Long before the beginning of the era of technical progress, somewhere in the cave centuries, the first recipes of meat preparations were lost, because even then a person had a need to process and store food.
During the heyday of the Roman Empire, lard was an indispensable product in the diet of slaves and plebeians who did the hard work, and such a cheap, full-fledged source of energy replenishment allowed and allows people to maintain good physical shape to people whose work is directly related to physical labor.
Salo is a product that has not undergone major qualitative changes over several millennia, and mankind, having not found an alternative to it, has not abandoned its use. Such attention is due to the valuable biochemical composition.
The false notion that lard is a source of cholesterol causes only its appearance.
According to laboratory tests, it is contained in pork fat much less than in other products consumed by man daily.
Pig fat is a source of organic acids, vital to man.
Of course, like any food with a high calorie content, a product requires a balanced, literally and figuratively, approach to its use.
Salting of bacon with garlic - basic technological principles
It must be said that there are not so many ways to prepare salo for the future. Pork lard as an ingredient in many sausages. Separately, it is harvested by salting, smoking and boiling.
Consider the ways of salting lard: with garlic, pepper, herbs and roots. But first let us dwell on the most important technological points.
Choice of raw materials.
There is nothing difficult in salting technology for lard if the main requirement is met - the choice of high-quality raw materials from young, healthy pork carcass.
Good fat has a white or slightly pinkish color. Fat and boar meat (males that have reached puberty) has an unpleasant odor. So feel free to smell the fat before you pay for it. Do not expect to neutralize the smell by soaking, smoking, adding a lot of spices. Will not work. Buy lard with skin and pay attention to how it is processed. Ideal - lard, tar grinded. The skin of such fat has a characteristic smell and brown color. If a gasoline blowtorch was used for tarring the carcass, then the fat would have the smell of an automobile workshop. Pitching is used to remove bristles, so ideally, there should be no residues on the surface of the skin.
After a visual inspection and examination of the product by smelling , check the density. When pressing on the surface of the selected piece should not remain dents, but too hard to buy fat is not worth it, because most likely the pig was either too old at the time of slaughter, or she had problems with the diet. Although excessive density can be eliminated, add sugar to the marinade, by soaking or boiling.
For salting, suet with a uniform texture, cut from the dorsal and lateral parts of the carcass, is suitable. For home salting, fat is often selected, cut from the abdominal part, with meat layers: it all depends on the selected salting recipe and personal taste, but it should be borne in mind that fat “with a slit” reaches maturation somewhat later. The thickness of the pieces should be from 2.5 to 3 cm. It occurs, and quite often, that the fat is thicker than these values. In such cases, when salting, cuts are made along the midline of the side slice so that the salt or marinade evenly penetrates deep into the piece. If you do not make cuts in a thick piece, then putrefactive bacteria can penetrate into a deeper layer before the saline solution and spoil the product.
Another important criterion is sanitary and hygienic norms. Remember that pathogenic microbes often "do not see" the differences between humans and animals, and therefore pay attention to the fact that the seller has a certificate from a doctor or laboratory assistant of sanitary and epidemiological control. But even with such a document, special attention should be paid to the preparation of the product for salting from the first to the last stage of salting. Pickling suspends the growth and reproduction of microorganisms, but does not kill them. Salt, penetrating into the tissue, partially dehydrates the fat. After 24-48 hours of pickling, meat juice usually appears. At the end of the pickling juice and wet salt, it is better to remove and transfer the fat into a clean container, sprinkle with dry and clean salt so that there are no gaps between the pieces.
The amount of salt - 10% by weight of fat. Technologists and home craftsmen with great experience indicate different numbers, but years of experience show that lard absorbs as much salt as needed, without losing the taste and quality of meat preparation. Therefore, the main and correct question will not be about the amount of salt, but about its quality: choose only salt, stone, medium grinding, leaving aside exotic options with inscriptions like “sea”, “iodated” and so on.
Basic salting methods: dry, “wet”, mixed. Below, in the examples given in the recipes, we will consider each of these options in order to save time on reading and combine theory with practice.
1. How to pickle lard with garlic: dry salted
Required:
- Salt, kitchen
- Fat (back) 3 kg
- Garlic
- Ground black pepper
Preparation:
- Scrape dirt from the surface with a sharp knife with a long and wide blade. Wash the lard and dry the surface of the piece with a napkin.
- Cut into strips of 400-500 g. Small sizes will contribute to a more rapid and uniform salting.
- Crush peeled garlic. You can also choose its quantity arbitrarily. A portion of salt (300 g), garlic and pepper mix and rub each piece of lard with this composition.
- Pour a small layer of salt into a dry container with a lid and lay tightly on the lard. Cover all the gaps between the pieces with salt, leaving no space and cover the laid pieces with the next layer of salt. Repeat the operation until all parts are tightly rammed. Cover the top with salt 1.0-1.5 cm. Close the container with a lid and clean in cold. The temperature for ripening is 2-4C, and time depends on the density of the fat itself and its total mass. Sometimes fat can be consumed as early as 4-5 days.
- If you plan to store for 2-3 months, then transfer the fat into a clean and dry container, sprinkling it with new salt, but without garlic and pepper. Wrap each piece tightly with plastic and put it in the freezer. In the same way, you can tamp the fat in jars, but you must first clean the container with soda, rinse and heat in the oven. Place the lard in a jar, cover it with salt and seal with sterilized lids.
2. Salting with bacon and garlic: wet ambassador
Required:
- Fat (breast) 5 kg
For brine:
- Salt, cooking
- Garlic
- Cumin
- Sugar
Preparation:
- Prepare pieces of bacon as described in the previous recipe. Thick pieces do not forget to notch in the middle. Boil water and add salt. Try the brine fortress. It should reach a concentration of 10%. Add cumin, garlic and sugar. Wait until the liquid has completely cooled.
- Put the bacon in the pan and cover with the pickle.
- For wet salting, put the pieces of fat skin up, and on the last layer, put the board and oppression. Remove the container in the cold. Ensure that the fat is covered with marinade for 2 cm. After 7 days, remove the sample. For storage, remove the pieces from the liquid, wipe with a napkin, leave it for a short time to air (place on the top shelf of the refrigerator or hang it on the twine in a draft). Wrap dried pieces of parchment, put in airtight bags and store in the freezer.
3. How to pickle salo with garlic: complicated marinade
Composition for marinade:
Dill seeds 50 g
Cumin or coriander 10 g
Garlic 200 g
Salt 0.5 kg
Black and allspice - 20 g
Sugar 300 g
Apple cider vinegar or citric acid (6%) 200 ml
Water 5.0 l
Bay leaf 10 g
Carrots, fresh 500-600 g
Bacon 3 kg
Cooking:
- Peel the carrots and garlic, wash and cut into cubes or plates. Cut the prepared piece of bacon into 4-5 cm wide strips. Scoop in garlic and carrots. Throw salt and sugar in boiling water, add the remaining spices and turn off the stove in 5-7 minutes. Allow the marinade to cool, pour in vinegar or citric acid solution.
- Place further for pickling in marinade and subsequent storage, as in recipe No. 2.
4. How to pickle bacon with garlic and prunes
Required:
Breast 1 kg
Prunes 150 g
Black pepper 15g
Garlic 100g
Salt 200 g
Sugar 50 g
Lemon tincture (50%) 100 ml
Cooking:
Mix salt (100 g), sugar, ground pepper and chopped garlic. Add the vodka and rub the brisket prepared and stuffed with prune with this mixture. Pour the remaining salt into a thick plastic bag and place the brisket in it. Tie and refrigerate for 72 hours. After the expiration date, scrape off the excess salt with a sharp knife, chop and serve.
5. Salting of bacon with garlic and juniper
Required:
Fat with a slot of 1.5 kg
Salt, stone 50 g +200 g
Sodium Nitrite 1 g
Sugar 10 g
Bay leaf
Garlic
Juniper berries
Cooking:
Rub the prepared layer with a mixture of ground spices, sugar and salt. Cover the dry container with a layer of salt, put lard into it and, pressing tightly, cover with the second half of the taken amount of salt (100g + 100g). Close the container and refrigerate for 12-15 days.
6. How to pickle bacon with garlic in onion broth
Required:
Onion peel 150 g
Garlic 50g
Bay leaf
Hot pepper, ground
Salt 200 g
Water 1 l
Lard 1 kg
Sugar 30g
Cooking:
Wash the onion peels with running water. Put all the ingredients in the pan and pour boiling water over them. Put the lard on and simmer until cooked. Press down the bacon so that it is covered with water during the cooking process. Readiness of fat check punching fork: fat should be easily pierced and easily removed from the fork. Wait for the pan to cool and move it into the cold. The next day, remove the bacon from the brine, dry and rub the surface again with pepper and garlic. You can chop and serve a snack.
7. Salting of bacon with garlic: spreading for sandwiches
Required: Fat 0.5 kg
Salt 50 g
Garlic 20g
Chopped greens (dill, parsley) 100 g
A mixture of ground peppers 10-20 g
Cooking:
Fresh, skinned lard fat twice minced with a meat grinder, with herbs and garlic. Add salt and spices to the paste. Place the mixture tightly in a “waist up” jar. Put the jars in a saucepan filled with water and, boiling water, boil the lard in jars: 0.5 l -1.5 hours, 1.0 l - about two hours. After cooling, soak for 24 hours in the cold.
Pickling bacon with garlic - tips and tricks
- Before the ambassador, the fat is soaked, so that it acquires a delicate, softer texture. After that, the fat must be dried and cooled well.
- Salty lard is well preserved in the refrigerator for up to 6 months if it is packed in dry containers and sprinkled dry, pre-calcined with salt, without moisture and air. Periodically check the salt moisture and, if necessary, dry it or replace it.
